Re: [Pycon-openspaces] BoF/openspace feedback

Hey Hobson! That's a good idea! I should probably blog some BoF best practices, beyond just the gaps listed above. I'd note that most of the items listed aren't really feasible for individual session leaders to organize themselves. For instance, I guess we could tell folks to use Wikimedia's open Etherpad https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/, but it'd arguably be better if PyCon or the PSF saw the value in running an instance for collaborative note-taking and documentation. Those big notepads and markers are probably a good compromise for the lack of whiteboards/projectors. They'd also enable hosts to make signs for their rooms. That said, I hope this message gets through to next year's organizers. Gridding according to talk times would be a big help! Mahmoud On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 11:32 AM, Hobson Lane wrote:

Awesome ideas! Giving the hosts of open spaces some resources and tips could only improve their impact and fun. Despite being an openspaces organizer, host, and attendee, for a couple years now, I could have used some "best practices" and resources (like collaboration channels) to pull from. Lev (gensim sprint) blogged with suggestions for Sprint organizers here: https://t.co/4jvWPrlS4J . We could use something similar for Open Spaces (only a bit more formal "best practices", perhaps).

--Hobson

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 3:00 AM, Mahmoud Hashemi wrote:

...

To the amazing (and no doubt exhausted) PyCon organizers,

This year I ran around 6 open spaces, and they were some of the best I've been involved in, in many, many ways. However, I do have some ideas for making them even better. Figured I'd send them your way while they're fresh. In short:

* Whiteboards * Projectors * Sanctioned means to collaborate and keep in touch. An etherpad for shared notetaking and collaboration would be excellent. Google Docs are perhaps a bit too personal (with usernames, etc.) * A schedule gridded according to talk schedules (missing two talks stressed some folks out)

I love the way the rooms were physically grouped together. I think this might be enhanced if people had some way of labeling the rooms as the sessions start so people don't have to go all the way over to the board. Paper and markers and tape would be fine.

If there's anything I can do to help with this in the future, please let me know.

Thank you again for the amazing conference!

Mahmoud

_______________________________________________ Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces